Overview and History

The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown was founded in 1968 by a group of artists, writers and patrons, including Fritz Bultman, Salvatore and Josephine Del Deo, Stanley Kunitz, Phil Malicoat, Robert Motherwell, Myron Stout, Jack Tworkov and Hudson D. Walker, among others. The founders envisioned a place in Provincetown, the country’s most enduring artists’ colony, where artists and writers could live and work together in the early phase of their careers. The founders believed that the freedom to pursue creative work within a community of peers is the best catalyst for artistic growth. The Work Center has dedicated itself to this mission for over 40 years.

Today the Work Center is a leading long-term residency program for emerging artists and writers and one of the most renowned. Each year the Work Center offers residencies – the gift of time, space and community – to twenty Fellows selected from some 1,500 applications worldwide. From October to May, the Work Center gives the Fellows living and workspace, a modest stipend and each other. The only thing asked in return is that they focus on new work while they are in residence.

In addition to the Fellowships, the Fine Arts Work Center offers returning residencies for former Fellows, collaborative residencies for visiting artists and writers, an open- enrollment summer workshop program in visual arts and creative writing and 24PearlStreet, an online writing program.

The restoration of the year-round vitality of Provincetown as an historic artists’ colony lies at the heart of the Work Center’s mission. All of its programs are dedicated to enhancing this heritage. Each year we also bring nationally recognized artists and writers to Provincetown for lectures, readings and exhibitions, all free and open to the public and enjoyed by thousands of people in the community.